Tag Archives: Santa Claus Girls

Santa Claus Girls nonprofit pivots after fire, requests monetary donations to replace gifts for children in need

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Going Local, Holidays, Kent County, Local Business, Local Faces, Non-Profits, Our Cities, Upcoming Events, West Michigan, , , , , , , ,
Local nonprofit is determined to bring Christmas to thousands of Kent County children despite the fire at their storage facility (Courtesy, pxhere.com)



By Deborah Reed

WKTV Managing Editor

deborah@wktv.org


A recent fire destroyed over 5,000 of gifts intended for families in need this Christmas. But Santa Claus Girls (SCG) of Kent County is determined to keep Christmas alive for the 8,500 children registered this year.

At 9 p.m. on Nov. 24, multiple agencies responded to a fire at the DeltaPlex Arena in Walker that began in a west wall of the building.

Over 5,000 gifts were damaged by smoke (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

An event center for many years, the Arena closed in summer of 2022, but remained the donation drop-off site for SCG.

Though flames did not reach the area where SCG operates, smoke infiltrated the area for hours, causing damage to thousands of gifts.

SCG Vice President Nancy Ditta said they have not been able to go through the gifts yet, and therefore are not sure if anything is salvageable. SCG will go through their storage area after the first of the year, and will know more then.

Right now, SCG’s focus is on making sure all registered children in need receive a gift in time for Christmas.

A Christmas pivot

“We have 8,500 kids, with 3,500 families, registered to receive gifts,” said Ditta. “We were able to purchase gift cards through Meijer, so we will be delivering gift cards instead of gifts to all of our recipients.”

Santa Claus Girls wants every child to receive a gift on Christmas morning (Courtesy, pxhere.com)

The number of registered children is a decrease from the 13,000 children serviced in 2022 due to an unexpected registration cutoff.

“With the fire, we had to stop registrations early,” said Ditta.

With a delivery date of Dec. 9, monetary donations to help purchase gift cards are needed.

While toys, books, and other physical gifts are accepted, Ditta said monetary donations are best since SCG volunteers are not at the DeltaPlex location to accept donations.

Monetary donations can be made via credit card, PayPal or check. Detailed instructions on how to complete donations can be found on the SCG website.

Children and families in need will receive gift cards personally delivered to their door by one of 300 volunteer drivers on Saturday, Dec. 9.

A century of giving

SCG was founded in 1908 by Arianna VanDoorn of Park Congregational Church.

Sponsored by the late Arthur H. VandenBerg, then editor of the Grand Rapids Herald, VanDoorn collected $85 to provide gifts for 150 children who, due to unfortunate circumstances, would not receive gifts at Christmas.

The goal of SCG is to ensure all children in Kent County receives a gift on Christmas morning. Each child receives one new piece of clothing, one new toy, a new book, and hats and mittens.

(Courtesy photo)

For over a century, SCG has helped thousands of Kent County children between the ages of one and twelve years of age – yet many people don’t know the group exists.

“This is our 115th year, [and] a lot of people aren’t familiar with Santa Claus Girls,” said Ditta, adding that the tragedy of the DeltaPlex fire has made more people aware of SCG and their mission.

How you can give

SCG accepts donations at any time throughout the year. Because every person associated with SCG is a non-paid volunteer, 100% of collected funds go directly to the program.

To donate, click here: donate.

To learn more about SCG, visit: www.santaclausgirls.org.

Santa Claus Girls, adapting to hard times, return this holiday season and look to the future

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Community Health, Going Local, Holidays, Kids Activities, Local History, Non-Profits, WKTV Projects,
This year’s Santa Claus Girls operation will look different than it did in 2018. But the desire to support local families in need has not changed. (Supplied/Santa Claus Girls)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

The historic holiday non-profit and volunteer-run Santa Claus Girls program, which most recently operated out of Kentwood but has temporarily set up its toy shop in Grandville, will return this Christmas season after last year breaking a century-long run of helping families due to the pandemic.

The Santa Claus Girls program, shown in this undated photo, has been around for more than a century, but is changing these days. (Supplied/Santa Claus Girls)

After 112 years of service to the West Michigan community, losing its facility and unable to gather volunteers in numbers in 2020, Santa Claus girls was determined to get back to business in 2021, Tina Hudson, president of Santa Claus Girls, said to WKTV.

But things will be different — a new workplace, a compacted work schedule, a smaller number of kids and families supported, a different plan to get the gift package out to the community, and — maybe most importantly for the future — changes in how the group is funded.

“We are back this year but in a very different format,” Hudson said. “We are working out of West Michigan CDL for four days — Dec 9-12. (The group usually works months ahead of time to gather and put together gift packages). This will entail an extremely high intensity work time for us. We are fortunate, though, to at least have this time and space.”

West Michigan CDL, a Grandville truck driver training school with a well-known Commercial Drivers License (CDL) program, has allowed Santa Claus Girls to use their facility this year. But, Hudson has pointed out, they are a working facility and, so can only offer up a short period of time.

“Due to limited time constraints, we estimate being able to service approximately 2,500-3,000 families rather than our usual 5,000 to 6,000. So that means 5,000 kiddos rather than the 12,000 to 13,000 we usually do,” Hudson said, noting that they have already reached their registration limit. And, “again due to limited time and storage space, we are not able to accept donations of toys, clothing, etc. this year.”

The client families, this year, will be given a control number and pickup time— “We are not delivering, curbside pickup only,” she said.

The Santa Claus Girls are not all “girls”, as in this 2019 photograph. (WKTV)

The children who will be given gift packages will be the same ages Santa Claus Girls have always done: infant to age 12 of both genders. But due to the limited time they will not be wrapping gifts, so parents will have that option. The gifts will be bundled and placed in non-see-through plastic bags and given to the parents.

“The parents will not be coming into our building but snaking around the parking lot (in cars) to the pickup door,” Hudson said.

One other result of the change of practice this season is that the program will — actually wants to — deplete its stockpile of toys and clothes and other items. And they will then turn to their future work of finding a more permanent home, restocking their shelves and finding other means of financially supporting the program.

“We lost our storage space at Knoll (Industries in Kentwood), due to its sale and had to move out any remaining items we had after Christmas 2019,” Hudson said. “Meijer was kind enough to step up and send trucks for us to move things into and they are storing goods for us. We hope to deplete our inventory this year and find a permanent home, but so far no luck.”

And talking about “hoping” for the future, even their funding sources will need to change.

“We operate on a $200,000 budget, all donations from the community. With not working last year due to COVID our donations barely came in,” she said. “We are working with what is in a bank account and dearly hope to have donations return to us this year.

“Besides losing Knoll we also lost our longtime sponsor — The Grand Rapids Press.  We are now a stand-alone charity and are praying the community steps up and helps us out.”

For more information about the Santa Claus Girls, visit santaclausgirls.org.

A year without the Santa Claus Girls, on this episode of WKTV Journal In Focus

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Community Health, Going Local, Health, Holidays, Kids Activities, Local Faces, Local History, Non-Profits, WKTV Journal In Focus,

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

On this holiday episode of WKTV Journal In Focus, we catch up with the Santa Claus Girls, a local non-profit which has been a Christmastime staple in West Michigan for more than 100 years. . . . Until this year.

This holiday season, instead of being bustling preparing thousands of gifts for local children in need, the group and its army of volunteers are quiet due to the pandemic and due to its loss of home facility.

WKTV first reported the news back in November, see the story here.

But late last month In Focus caught up with the group for a video report. First we will offer a recent WKTV short video about the Santa Claus Girls, then we talk with Maggie Moerdyke, Interim President of Santa Claus Girls. She tell us about what led to the group’s decision to suspend operations in 2020, and it is not just due to the pandemic.
 

We will also talk about the current and future needs of the group, as well as their hope for a better 2021.
 

WKTV Journal In Focus airs on cable television in the Wyoming and Kentwood areas on Comcast WKTV Channel 26 and on AT&T Channel 99 Government channel (For dates and times on Channel 26, see our Weekly On-air Schedule. For dates and times on Channel 99, visit here). All individual interviews included in episodes of WKTV Journal In Focus are also available on YouTube at WKTVvideos.

After 110 years, local Santa Claus Girls effort stymied by COVID-19, need for new space

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, Community Health, Going Local, Kids Activities, Local History, Non-Profits, Volunteers, ,
(Supplied/Santa Claus Girls)

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

After more than a century of providing holiday season gift bundles to thousands of western Michigan kids, the Santa Claus Girls will be still this holiday season as the double hit of both COVID-10 and the need for a new home facility has forced the program into hiatus for 2020.
 

The Santa Claus Girls’s history in Kent County dates from 1909 and from their most recent home in Kentwood at the Knoll Inc. building on 36th Avenue, the all-volunteer group delivered more than 13,500 gift packages in 2018 and topped that number last year.

“Santa Claus Girls has taken a pause for the 2020 season,” Maggie Moerdyke, Interim President of Santa Claus Girls, said to WKTV. “Knoll was sold and the charity inventory is packed in 4 trailers awaiting a new home. It was a tough decision for the board to pass for the holiday season yet the pandemic had made it impossible to carry forward for 2020.”

Undated historic photo of Santa Claus Girls. (Supplied/Santa Claus Girls)

Usually, the Santa Claus Girls packages and delivers gift bags through which in-need kids get a new toy and candy but also get hand-made, knitted winter hats and mittens. Depending on the age of the kids, families can also receive infant receiving blankets, crocheted or knitted or out of flannel, infant toys, and age-appropriate 1-year-old and 2-year-old stuffed animals.

To accomplish such an effort, there is a small army providing gift wrapping and package-assembly, as well volunteers to join another small army of drivers to deliver the packages in mid-December.

But the army will be at home this season.

“The volunteers, the space, the production, are all side by side and the ability to maintain 6 foot of space between was not an option,” Moerdyke said. “The 350 drivers were also on the mind of the board and to send them into the neighborhoods to deliver was not an option either with COVID spreading so rapidly. Safety and health was foremost on the mind of each of us through the cancellation process.”

She said the non-profit’s governing board had to make the decision that “with heavy heart (we) cannot reach the 13,000 children that are serviced during the giving season. The goal is to return in 2021, bigger and better.”

The board is also working a new model for the non-profit but, she said, they “truly need a workshop to make it happen.”

A new home needed for program

Knoll Inc. housed Santa Claus Girls for six years, including all utilities and the company’s maintenance staff.

Knoll had “a heart of gold to support the families in the community, the volunteers, and the charity,” she said. “Just maybe (we) will be fortunate to find another similar blessing.”

According to Moerdyke, Santa Claus Girls needs a facility between 25,000-75,000 square feet. The ideal, she said, would be 75,000 square feet which comes into use during the six weeks of assembling and delivery. The lower square footage figure would be for storage during the other 10 months of the year.

Moerdyke also said “the master plan is to have a facility to accommodate Santa Claus Girls, Y-Service Club (White Elephant Sale) and Toys For Tots.  All three charities have worked together for several years yet in separate facilities and moved from one place to another as needed incorporating the use of trailers for storage whenever necessary.”

As with every year, the Santa Claus Girls are also seeking community support both in volunteerism and financial donations.
   

For more information visit santaclausgirls.org or visit their Facebook page.

Santa Claus Girls, still at home in Kentwood, have work to be done and support needed

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Community Health, Holidays, Local Faces, Non-Profits,
Phyllis Lockhart (left) and Pat French ate part of the 2019 Santa Claus Girls army of volunteers. (WKTV)

By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org

Even after 110 years, two things remain constant for the Santa Claus Girls this time of the year: an army of volunteers are working to wrap and package gift bundles to be delivered to thousands of Western Michigan kids, and they could always use a little more community support.

Undated historic photo of Santa Claus Girls. (Supplied/Santa Claus Girls)

The Santa Claus Girls’s history in Kent County dates from 1909 and these days they operate out of the Knoll Inc. building on 36th in Kentwood — from where they delivered more than 13,500 gift packages in 2018 and hope to meet or beat that number this year.

“We are all very excited to help our community,” Maggie Moerdyke, a buyer for the Santa Claus Girls, said to WKTV this week. “And we want the public to know that if you know somebody that has a need, or anyone who has been displaced, please have them register” for gift delivery, at santaclausgirls.org.

And while the kids each get a new toy and candy — What else would be expected? —they also get hand-made, knitted winter hats and mittens. And shine very young kids have other, very specific, needs which donors might not think about.

“Our donations are coming in hot and heavy, but we still need receiving blankets, crocheted or knitted or out of flannel, as well as infant toys, and 1-year-old and 2-year-old stuffed animals that have sewn eyes or painted eyes,” Moerdyke said. “That would be awesome.”

Steve Loar, a Santa Claus Girls volunteer. (WKTV)

Of course, there is still current need for gift wrapping and package-assembly help currently at their Kentwood location, as well volunteers to join the army of drivers to deliver the packages in mid-December.

“People can go too our website, santaclausgirls.org, to sign up as drivers for (Saturday) December 14 … they will be in half-hour blocks, and each driver will have approximately 10 to 12 on their route,” Moerdyke said. “And as to working on the line, that is also online … and we will need lots of help after Thanksgiving.”

While somethings do not change — the need in the community and the willingness of Santa Claus Girls to help meet that need, for examples — Moerdyke said every year something new comes along to inspire her and the army of volunteers.

This year, she said, there are five families that, in lieu of giving each other Christmas presents, are taking collections and making donations to the Santa Claus Girls efforts. “I think that is amazing.”

For more information visit santaclausgirls.org or visit their Facebook page.

For a video of the program, produced by one of the Santa Claus Girls’ family, see below:

Santa Claus Girls keep tradition alive helped by Kentwood business

3-bottom, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Holidays, Kids Activities, Non-Profits, Volunteers


By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org

The Santa Claus Girls have a long history in Kent County, dating from 1909 in fact. These days they operate out of the Knoll Inc. building on 36th in Kentwood.

Over the years, some things have changed but one thing hasn’t — an army of volunteers work to keep up the tradition of buying, wrapping and delivering presents to more than 10,000 kids in Western Michigan. WKTV visited the Santa Claus Girls workshop recently and talked about that legacy with Maggie Moerdyke.

And what motivates that army?

“Why do they do what they do?” Maggie Moerdyke, a buyer for the Santa Claus Girls, said to WKTV in a recent interview. “It is important to them to make sure every child has that gift, no matter what their circumstance.”

While the kids each get a new toy and candy — what else would be expected? They also get hand-made, knitted winter hats and mittens. And those come from an army all by themselves.

The knitted hats and mittens come from “geriatric associations, from just from grandmas on the street,” she said. “Those all come from our community, very lovingly and very givingly.”

For more information visit santaclausgirls.org or visit their Facebook page.